the real purpose was to create a political environment to take away all our guns. the american public is largely on board with at least some of the president's agenda. in a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, more than half, 56%, say laws covering the sale of firearms should be stricter. so what realistically can the president do? david corn is washington bureau chief for "mother jones," joy reid is managing editor of thegrio.com, and both are msnbc political analysts. joy, how large should he be looking? >> i think the president needs to go in with a large package obviously, but when you talk to individual lawmakers, particularly on the house side, you get the sense two things have to happen. first of all, something has to pass the senate. that theoretically could be large, but the house is going to be a much tougher sled, although i was speaking with a couple lawmakers yesterday who seemed to think parts of what the president wants could actually pass in the house. things that are pretty much noncontroversial, things like universal background checks that eve